Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-01-22
,.r,o .t,,rd,no With ta,, towers and an ex.

large building with tall towers n an e1
tensive facade. Anxious for q better we"
she crossed over to q seat occupied by richly
dressed old lady, who was sitting alone. and
with every apology begged to be allowed &c
look out of her window for q moment. Ihe
woman did not heed her apparently, and she
walked with swift impotence further dow
and made the same request to a young man
yawning over his newspaper. The SAM
silence met her eager, little speech, n she
saw the passengers gazing at her %curiously
across the way. Utterly COMPOUNDED she
walked rapidly back to her seat, thoroughly
perplexed, and seeking in her own mind for
some explanation of such strange behavior.
Her head whirled with the rush of thought.
Where was she! What did it means How
was it that no one had answered q single re-
mark of hers from first to last: What did the
stiffness meant Something sinister! Had she
really spoken out loud, or only fancied that
she had? Like q flash all this came, and more.
She remembered that the doctor who had
attended her the winter before in a severe at
tack of bronchitis had said that unless she
was very careful she might lose her voice, and
at once she felt sure that this was it. Hell
voice was gone! But how could she be sure
after all! She would put it to the test at once
by giving a loud cali and watching the effect.
BY this time she was wrought up to the high
est pitch of nervous exaltation and was as
white as her handkerchief. She sat still, her
hands clenched in her lap, and proceeded to
put her ideas into execution. First she gave
a little shrek, then louder, louder, LOUDER
Her eyes were fixed intently on the faces OF
the passengers, not one of whom stirred hand
or foot or noticed it in the least. Trembling
in every limb, her heart beating to suffoca-
ton, Miss Roberta yelled out in a frantic, de-
spairing way, "Can't you hear me? Oo-o-o-h!"
and, having her worst suspicious realized by
the dead silence around her, she tore wildly
at her bonnet, dashed off her mantle and gave
such violent expression to her grief and
fright that two gentlemen rushed forward
and, Selling her, forced her back into her
seat, from which she had arisen. This did
not tend to compose her, nor did the alarmed
faces Of the passengers, nor did the fact that
when she turned to the man who clutched her
right arm so savagely and made a last appeal to
him be only shook his head and began to talk to
her on the fingers of his right hand. His
companion did the same, and she saw several
of the Others at it. There was no longer any
doubt in her mind. Her voice was gone! Or
was it her hearing, or her senses? In hysteri-
cal frenzy she broke away from her captors,
raced down to the other end of the car,
scrambled up on a seat and rang the bell
cord attached to the engine. The two gen.
tlemen gave chase, recaptured her, and, after
a struggle in which Miss Roberta gave a lively
account of herself, dragged her down on the
49, RI ~rl11o ~,on 1,,oc -, nnvoooooft1y, 11,,A
train stopped. A severe looking conductor
and an elderly gentleman hurried in to find
Miss Roberta in Mysteries and her fellow pas
sengers in an almost equal state of excite
ment.
When the heroine of this adventure could
do so she sobbed out, "You bear mes You are
sure YOU hear me? And I hear you! Thank
heaven! o, thank heaven" Copious tears
followed, and then, "Then what is the matter
with these peoples Are they dead, or crazy,
or whats" Explanations followed. The car
was a special one in which the inmates of the
Hitchcock Deaf and Dumb asylum were be-
ing conveyed to a new hlilding awaiting their
occupancy in another part Of the state. Miss
Roberta bad been put into it by mistake, ar
irving as she did ut the last moment in the
wa e Of the specials" They had been quite
as much alarmed by her conduct as she had
been by theirs, fancying that she had gone
out Of her mind. Many were the apologies of
the kind hearted superintendent who had been
taking his ease in the next car; stern and grutf
the comments of the disguised conductor,
who removed a meekly penitent, much
disheveled spinster promptly to the very last
coach Of the train, where he mounted guard
over her as a dangerous character from
whom another outbreak was to DO expected
at any moment: endless the telegraphing be.
tween her late fellow passengers; immense
the relief of Miss Roberta when, q little later,
she fell exhausted on the friendly bosom Of
alfectionate aunt; thrilling the account she
gave afterward of what she had thought, felt
and suffered during that awful journey. II
spected to hear of some skeery f~oolishness or
udder when Miss Roberta emanated out er
dis here house to go ramblin' and scramblin'
bout de world widout some sponsible person
like me to take care of her" was Florinda's
characteristic comment on the episode when
she heard of it.-Fances Courtepay Baylor.